Eorl was succeeded upon his death by his son Brego. It was Brego who completed the great hall of Meduseld, which became the home of the Kings of Rohan thereafter. Brego's first son Baldor made a vow to tread the Paths of the Dead at the celebration to commemorate the completion of Meduseld, but was lost in the caverns beneath Dwimorberg. Brego was grieved at the loss of his son and died soon afterward, leaving rule of Rohan to his younger son Aldor. Aldor was called 'the Old', for, coming young to the throne, he ruled the Mark for 75 years. They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and in deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years [...]. It was in forgotten years long ago that Eorl the Young brought them out of the North, and their kinship is rather with the Bardings of Dale, and with the Beornings of the Wood, among whom may still be seen many men tall and fair, as are the Riders of Rohan." — The Two Towers, Book Three, The Riders of Rohan, pg. 41 Folcwine's third son, Fengel, is not remembered with honor. He did little to further strengthen Rohan, and was at odds with both his Marshals and his kin. His only son, Thengel, therefore spent much time in Gondor, and won praise through his service to Steward Turgon. He married Morwen Steelsheen of Lossarnach, and began to raise a family in Gondor. Eventually, when Fengel died, Thengel reluctantly returned to Rohan to take up the kingship. While Thengel was wise and restored dignity to the House of Eorl, he did create some discord by encouraging the use of the language of Gondor in Edoras. At the time of Thengel's return to Rohan in TA 2953, Saruman first began to trouble the Rohirrim, and he declared himself Lord of Isengard. Also during Thengel's reign, the captain Thorongil (later revealed to be Aragorn II Elessar) first appeared in Rohan, and entered the service of the king, and won great renown. Thengel died in TA 2980 and was succeeded by his son, Théoden the Renowned.

The antipathy between the Rohirrim and the Dunlendings resembles the historical tension between the Anglo-Saxon settlers of Britain and the native Celts. The philologist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that the Riders of Rohan are, despite Tolkien's protestations, much like the ancient English (the Anglo-Saxons), but that they differed from the ancient English in having a culture based on horses. They use many Old English words related to horses; their name for themselves is Éotheod, horse-people, and the names of riders like Éomund, Éomer, and Éowyn begin with the word for "horse", eo[h]. [29] In Shippey's view, a defining virtue of the Riders is panache, which he explains means both "the white horsetail on [Éomer's] helm floating in his speed" and "the virtue of sudden onset, the dash that sweeps away resistance." [27] Shippey notes that this allows Tolkien to display Rohan both as English, based on their Old English names and words like éored ("troop of cavalry"), and as "alien, to offer a glimpse of the way land shapes people". [27] a b Tolkien, J. R. R.; Hostetter, Carl F.; Tolkien, Christopher (2001). "The Rivers and Beacon - hills of Gondor". EPDF.Shippey states further that "the Mark" (or the Riddermark [30]), the land of the Riders of Rohan – all of whom have names in the Mercian dialect of Old English, was once the usual term for central England, and it would have been pronounced and written "marc" rather than the West Saxon "mearc" or the Latinized "Mercia". [31] Tolkien, J. R. R. (1967). Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings. reprinted in Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-720907-X.

In the 13th century of the Third Age, the Kings of Gondor made alliances with the Northmen of Rhovanion, a people thought to be distantly descended from the Edain, those peoples of Men who crossed into Beleriand in the First Age and later settled in Númenor. The Men who would become the Rohirrim were in fact more closely akin to the Beornings and the Men of Dale, and were accounted as Middle Men, who, while not directly descended from the Men of Númenor, never served the will of Sauron. In The Two Towers, Aragorn describes the Rohirrim: Rohan is derived from Sindarin rochallor - roch means 'horse', but the meaning of the second element is unspecified. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Unfinished Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3. Kingdom of Dale • Harad • Núrn • Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor • Rohan • Rhûn • Khand • Eriador • Rhovanion • Vales of Anduin In Tolkien's works [ edit ] Etymology [ edit ] Tolkien stated that there was no link between Rohan and the noble family of Brittany, though he borrowed the name. [T 2] Stained-glass window depicting Marguerite de Rohan (c.1330–1406)A known camp was Dunharrow, even deeper in the White Mountains. Additionally, one of the most significant places in Rohan was the Hornburg, a great fortress at the center of the valley of Helm's Deep. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 519647821.

Tolkien grounded Rohan in elements inspired by Anglo-Saxon tradition, poetry, and linguistics, specifically in its Mercian dialect, in everything but its use of horses. Tolkien used Old English for the kingdom's language and names, pretending that this was in translation of Rohirric. Meduseld, the hall of King Théoden, is modelled on Heorot, the great hall in Beowulf. On the road to Minas Tirith, Théoden's army received help from Ghân-buri-Ghân, chieftain of the Drúedain, and came to the Rammas Echor at dawn of March 15 of the year 3019. That day he led the Rohirrim onto the Pelennor Fields, and the host of Rohan at first overwhelmed the Orc-legions of Sauron. Théoden then led his knights against the cavalry of the Haradrim as well, personally slaying their chieftain, and hewing his banner. Yet in that moment of great victory for the king, the Lord of the Nazgûl descended upon Théoden and mortally wounded him. Éowyn, sister of Éomer, had ridden to war with the Rohirrim, unknown to any of the men of the Mark, and revealed herself in single combat with the Witch-king. With the aid of Merry, Éowyn slew the Witch-king, and thus won great renown among all the peoples of the west for her bravery. Théoden, as he lay dying, called Éomer, now his heir, King of the Mark, and bade him tell Éowyn farewell, not knowing that his niece had defended him from the Witch-king. His knights bore Théoden's body out of the battle, while Éomer led the Rohirrim in their continued assault upon the Haradrim. The forces of Mordor greatly outnumbered the armies of Gondor and Rohan, however, and defeat appeared nigh, when Aragorn, returning from the Paths of the Dead, came up from the coast in the captured ships of the Corsairs of Umbar. Leading a great many men gathered from the southern fiefs of Gondor his arrival helped to turn the tide of battle. Tolkien adapted the Ubi sunt passage of the Old English poem The Wanderer to create a song of Rohan. [22] The WandererTolkien, J. R. R. (1954). The Two Towers. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 1042159111.